Treatment of Ground 99 



driven into the ground in the form of a lattice, or wrought 

 into any figures of trellis that the fancy may suggest. 

 When covered with luxuriant vines and climbing plants, 

 such a barrier is often admirable for its richness and variety. 



The sunken fence, fosse, or ha-ha, is an English invention, 

 used in separating that portion of the lawn near the house, 

 from the part grazed by deer or cattle, and is only a ditch 

 sufficiently wide and deep to render communication difficult 

 on opposite sides. When the ground slopes from the house, 

 such a sunk fence is invisible to a person near the latter, and 

 answers the purpose of a barrier without being in the least 

 obtrusive.* 



In a succeeding section we shall refer to terraces with 

 their parapets, which are by far the most elegant barriers 

 for a highly decorated flower garden, or for the purpose of 

 maintaining a proper connection between the house and the 

 grounds, a subject which is scarcely at all attended to, or 

 its importance even recognized as yet among us. 



* This contrivance has not been so frequently used in America as its 

 merits would warrant. A good example is seen by thousands of visitors 

 annually at Mt. Vernon. F. A. W. 



